Amazon Review
If Humphrey Hawksley's name is familiar, it's probably as a BBC Foreign Affairs correspondent, shouting over the gunfire in Kosovo or Iraq. But with Absolute Measures, his second novel, Hawksley's name may register on the bookshelves. An SAS raid on a house outside Khartoum leaves 13-year-old Sudanese twins Yasin and Samira Omer orphans. Yasin knows that the Englishman Tim Park, supposedly an archaeology student, must have had something to do with it, but inexplicably passes up the chance to incriminate him. Five years later, adopted by the rich and mysterious Abu Musa, Yasin and Samira find themselves caught up in the violent politics of Zamboanga in the Southern Philippines and inexorably drawn back towards Tim Park...
Hawksley is no literary stylist,and his novel is stuffed with the kind of sultry child-women, amoral heroes and evil terror-brokers that seem to draw breath only in thrillers. But his quick-fire, fact- filled staccato sentences pump up the pace and the complex politics and exotic locations--Beijing, London, Manila, Sri Lanka, Budapest, Kharachi, Vlissingen--suggest an informed familiarity with the secret intricacies of international espionage. This is the low-down on Foreign Affairs which won't make the Nine O'Clock News. --Alan Stewart
Product Description
Twins. Left orphaned, and abandoned. And with a burning desire to wreak vengeance on the world.
After British special forces accidentally kill their parents in the Sudan, Samira and Yasin Omer are adopted by a wealthy Filipino businessman. They are raised in a world of luxury and privilege. But when the Asian economic crisis plunges their country into chaos, Yasin decides that this time he will retaliate.
He conceives of a terrible plan: one that will shake the world, and leave thousands dead.
Only two people can stop him.
One is a man whose life he saved.
The other is his twin sister.
In deadly race against time, both must choose between their ties to Yasin - and their duty to prevent an atrocity that will plunge the world into chaos.
'Absolute Measures' is a heart-pounding, high-concept, prophetic thriller that draws on Humphrey Hawksley's years of experiences as an Asian correspondent for the BBC to tell a powerful story of family, terrorism, and global politics.
"The second thriller from the author of Ceremony on Innocence draws on his experience as a BBC correspondent to produce a novel of considerable power." - The Times.
Humphrey Hawksley's writing has been widely praised.
"Takes the thriller in important new directions" - Craig Thomas
"Provocative and topical" - Daily Telegraph
"Ominous and insightful" - Stephen Coonts
"Realistic and gripping" - Chris Patten
Humphrey Hawksley has been a BBC correspondent specialising in Asia for many years, and has reported from troublespots such as Kosovo and Iraq. In the 19980s he was in India, the Philippines and Sri Lanka - from where he was expelled while covering the Tamil war. From 1990 he was based in Hong Kong and in 1994 moved to Beijing to open the BBC's first television bureau in China.
Endeavour Press is the UK's leading independent publisher of digital books
After British special forces accidentally kill their parents in the Sudan, Samira and Yasin Omer are adopted by a wealthy Filipino businessman. They are raised in a world of luxury and privilege. But when the Asian economic crisis plunges their country into chaos, Yasin decides that this time he will retaliate.
He conceives of a terrible plan: one that will shake the world, and leave thousands dead.
Only two people can stop him.
One is a man whose life he saved.
The other is his twin sister.
In deadly race against time, both must choose between their ties to Yasin - and their duty to prevent an atrocity that will plunge the world into chaos.
'Absolute Measures' is a heart-pounding, high-concept, prophetic thriller that draws on Humphrey Hawksley's years of experiences as an Asian correspondent for the BBC to tell a powerful story of family, terrorism, and global politics.
"The second thriller from the author of Ceremony on Innocence draws on his experience as a BBC correspondent to produce a novel of considerable power." - The Times.
Humphrey Hawksley's writing has been widely praised.
"Takes the thriller in important new directions" - Craig Thomas
"Provocative and topical" - Daily Telegraph
"Ominous and insightful" - Stephen Coonts
"Realistic and gripping" - Chris Patten
Humphrey Hawksley has been a BBC correspondent specialising in Asia for many years, and has reported from troublespots such as Kosovo and Iraq. In the 19980s he was in India, the Philippines and Sri Lanka - from where he was expelled while covering the Tamil war. From 1990 he was based in Hong Kong and in 1994 moved to Beijing to open the BBC's first television bureau in China.
Endeavour Press is the UK's leading independent publisher of digital books
